Current rhetoric or 'spin' seems to be suggesting a change - we are told the next budget will be 'fair'. Does this mean that at least the economic victim blaming will be curtailed somewhat?
I suspect that the economic insight underpinning the next budget will be still quite uninformed, that changes will be at best superficial and administered in a manner to try to regain power at the next election. We are undergoing structural change, whether we like it or not - and some of this change, particularly in income and wealth distribution, needs more than superficial solutions.
Each time I drive to Melbourne - typically every three months, I'm stunned by the increase in construction of all types. This incredibly long period of low interest rates and emphasis on expenditure relative to revenue oriented budgetary strategies has resulted in a sustained expansion which somehow has underpinned itself through multiplier type effects so that hasn't seemed like or become a bubble which is likely to burst, perhaps restoring some sense of egalite, but an ongoing and inequality oriented 'golden age of construction' entrenching a new level of inequality.
Attempts by budgets to be fair by this government are likely to fail the challenges I think we are facing.
What of the victim blaming of refugees, the horrendous situation facing refugees on Manus Island and Nauru and quite possibly in other detention centres. I shudder to think about this - I have long realised that a lack of certainty and hope for the future such as that imposed on those boat people caught up in the introductory phases of the 'crackdown' on the boats is abhorrent, inhumane and, where it is imposed by a legal or political system, a denial of human rights which I do not want my country to be part of.
What of climate change and the environment? Our position under the Liberals has regressed - it has been and is still embarrassing... (more to come)...